"The future of our relations depends not only upon us, but upon the American side as well," Lavrov said

MOSCOW, October 4. /TASS/. Russia still hopes its relations with the United States could be ultimately driven out of the current artificially created deadlock but the future of relations will depend on both sides, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with the Asharq Al-Awsat Pan-Arab newspaper.

"There is a hope that we could overcome this artificially created deadlock in our cooperation, although the future of our relations depends not only upon us, but upon the American side as well," he said.

According to the Russian top diplomat, it is not Russia’s fault that Russian-US relations are declining. "This is a direct consequence of the policy pursued by the Obama administration that was destroying the foundation of our cooperation and, before leaving, planted time bombs underneath it to make things difficult for its successors," he noted.

The minister reiterated that Russia is ready to pool efforts with the new US administration "to search for ways of improving relations on the basis of the principles of mutual trust and consideration for each other’s interests."

"Unfortunately, our bilateral ties still remain hostage to the bickering in the American establishment," Lavrov said, adding that despite that Moscow hopes "that common sense would nonetheless prevail in Washington and it would be possible to stop further confrontation."

"We do really seek it," he stressed. "We understand that the US and Russia as major nuclear-weapon states bear special responsibility for the general situation in the world, for maintaining global stability and security. It can be viewed as a positive sign that our countries resumed their dialogue on strategic issues in September, which had been frozen since the beginning of 2014.

Lavrov said he is confident there is a big potential for Russian-US cooperation in international affairs but this potential, in his words, is underdeveloped. "We have long been urging our colleagues to establish real coordination in the area of counter-terrorism and in dealing with other dangerous challenges, i.e. the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, drug trafficking and cyber crime. Let alone the goal of resolving regional crises the number of which in the world, unfortunately, does not diminish," he underscored.

More to it, in his words, the two countries have possibilities to implement mutually beneficial initiatives in the trade and investment sphere. "It is indicative that the American business values its presence on our market and wants to develop mutually beneficial projects with Russian partners," the minister said. "The US business delegation consisting of representatives of 140 companies became the most numerous at the SPIEF in June. Profit margins of American businesses in Russia are higher that on many other markets and working conditions are very favorable.".